Congress Plaza Hotel strike ends after 10 years

Many former workers have found new jobs

A 10-year strike at the Congress Plaza hotel in downtown Chicago -- believed to be the longest hotel strike in the world -- may be ending. (Jose M. Osorio, Chicago Tribune)

A strike at the Congress Plaza Hotel in downtown Chicago that lasted 10 years has ended.

Unite Here Local 1, the union representing cleaning and maintenance workers, offered an unconditional return to work as of midnight Wednesday. The union Thursday confirmed it is ending the strike.

"The decision to end the Congress strike was a hard one, but it is the right time for the union and the strikers to move on," Unite Here Local 1 President Henry Tamarin said in a statement. "The boycott has effectively and dramatically reduced the hotel's business. … There is no more to do there."

Most of the 130 workers who originally went on strike have found new jobs or crossed the picket line to return to work. If any strikers choose to return to the hotel, terms call for them to be paid at the same rate they were 10 years ago.

When the strike started, Tamarin said, the standard wage for room attendants was $8.83 per hour — a wage contract workers still make. Now the citywide standard for room attendants is $16.40 an hour, he said.

The hotel and union have been embroiled in litigation during the decade. The most recent lawsuit, filed by the hotel a month ago, accused the union of targeting some of its most lucrative guests and urging them to change hotels.

In one of the lawsuit's examples, the hotel alleged that the union sent a heart-shaped box filled with dry cow manure to the offices of the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, which was considering hosting a conference at the hotel. The group held its conference as scheduled, but the Congress Plaza said the stunt reduced the number of expected related bookings.

In another example, the hotel alleged that the union reached out to the production company behind "America's Next Top Model" and tried to dissuade it from holding a 2008 casting call for the reality show there. The production company moved the casting call to another hotel.

The union says the lawsuit was unrelated to its decision to end the strike.

Congress Plaza Hotel attorney Peter Andjelkovich called the move a surprise. He said the union and the hotel hadn't met at the negotiating table in a year.

Andjelkovich said there are still many legal and logistical issues related to the employees' return that need to be worked out. At a news conference Thursday morning at the hotel, Andjelkovich said the hotel and union officials plan to meet to facilitate the next step.

He said the hotel employs 300 to 500 workers. Subcontracted workers have filled in for some striking workers, while 30 to 40 union workers have returned to work, he said.

The strike began June 3, 2003, when 130 Congress Plaza workers walked out in response to the hotel's proposed wage cuts, health care contribution freezes and a plan to contract out some jobs.

The union says it found jobs for about 60 of those workers, leaving a few dozen who could return under Thursday's deal.

The strikers have picketed regularly and held large rallies over the years, though only about half of the original group remained by the protest's third anniversary. Workers were paid $200 a week during the strike, forcing most to take on second jobs.

Former hotel worker Jose Sanchez, 62, said optimism about securing a better contract faded as the strike continued. When it began, he said, he thought it would last a "couple of months at most," but about eight years later he left the picket line feeling discouraged.

"I never saw a positive sign," said Sanchez, a cook for the hotel for more than 20 years. "We were on the bad end of the deal and the owners were so stubborn they didn't want to give up anything."

The hotel, at 520 S. Michigan Ave., was constructed in 1893 for the World's Columbian Exhibition and counted among its guests Presidents Grover Cleveland, Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt. The hotel filed for bankruptcy protection in 1995.

The hotel's ownership is led by the Nasser family, whose investment holdings include textiles.